Grandmas are great aren't they? They're always there for you. They rarely tell you off. They've always got time to give you a hug or share some wisdom. They hand out love and cookies and never moan about the sugar or not having enough time. Grandmas are brilliant. So why, oh why, do they insist on living in places that are hard or dangerous or just downright difficult to get to?

Take my Grandma for example, she lives in the Woods! And not a nice little woodland filled with helpful animals and flowers. No, my grandma bought a house in the DEEP DARK WOODS. Why did she do that? Now, every time I want a cookie... or a hug, I have to put my life in danger. Everyone knows that the DEEP DARK WOODS are dangerous. I don't know what these grandmothers are thinking.

So for all you young people out there whose grannies are thinking of moving  - here are my five best reasons Grandmothers Should Not Live in the Woods.

1. They're really far away...
At least half a morning's walk and grandchildren today are very busy, if you want to see us, you should stay close.

2. The Paths are hard to follow...
The woods are notorious for paths that lead this way and that. I've lost count of the number of people who got into danger because they took the wrong path in the woods. Make life easier for your guest, live somewhere a sat-nav can find.

3. Dark...
Grandmothers should live in places called Cherry Orchard Gardens or Love Lane. Addresses that start Deep Dark are not appealing to your grandchildren. Many of us are scared of the dark, why would you want to live somewhere that we're scared of?

Which brings me on to...

4. Witches...
Everyone knows witches live in the woods. If you are an old lady and you choose to buy a house in the woods, you only have yourself to blame if people start calling you a witch. And you know what happens to witches in stories... bad, bad stuff usually involving ovens.

And lastly and probably most importantly...

5. Wolves...
They're big, they're bad and they live in the woods too. Nine out of ten people that set foot in the deep dark woods end up coming face to face with a wolf. And we know that we're plucky and quite often find ways to defeat the wolves, or get saved by the timely arrival of a hero... but, it only takes one tragedy to be one too many. 

Grandmothers!

Do your grandchildren a favour... buy a bungalow on the estate round the corner. Then they can come see you every day without risking their lives. Or, better yet, move in... then you can bake cookies and give out hugs all day long. I'm sure Mummies and Daddies across the country would love to have you live with them.

That's all I have to say... for now.

​Little Red Riding Hood.

This is the first of a series of blogs entitled If Story Characters Blogged by Tale Time Stories. You can follow Tale Time on Facebook, Twitter or sign up to the mailing list.

The bath is done. His tummy's full. We've sat through Upsy Daisy's dance and Macca Pacca's obsession with stones. Iggle Piggle is not in bed... neither is Dylan. We're on the home run. Just story time  to get through, then he goes down and it's finally my time. I don't know about you, but sometimes it crosses my mind to skip the story - or pick the shortest one I can find - so I can get to that falling on the sofa moment a little quicker... 

But then I have to have a word with myself. Story time is important. It's special time to be together (we're together all day, but that's not the point, right?). So I get him in his grow bag (I don't care what anyone says, the grow bag gets me every time)  and I pick a story.

But what to read...? I've been in the Deep Dark Woods more times than Red Riding Hood and I know there's plenty of Room on the Broom for a dog, cat, bird and frog/ I could recite I'm Not Cute backwards and, I expect, so could Dylan.

So I pick a new story: Doing the Animal Bop. It's not too long. It'll do, I think.
​
I open the page and there are ostriches dancing across a pink double page spread. I begin the rhyming prose - its kinda fun. I wonder whether there's even any point to this nightly ritual. Is he taking this in? Does he care? Or would he rather be pulling the curtains?

So what do we do? How can we encourage our children into reading, when they find reading so difficult? 

It's all in the pay off.

​We need to make reading something they want to do, not something we're forcing on them. 

But how, when you have a child that can't get to the end of a paragraph without tears?

Well here's the thing...

,There are two simple ways I can think of to do this.

1. Read stories to them.
2. Download audio books/ stories for them to listen to.

The pleasure of reading to a child, of making that connection and sharing a story, is one of the joys of parenting and teaching that can never be replaced.

But we cannot read to our children as much as we would like. If the aim is to make independent readers. If we want them to devour books... we need another option. 

I am going to suggest audiobooks and audio stories as an alternative. 

So how can listening to an audio book help someone learn to read?
 
Let me tell you about a friend of mine.

At 15 this friend's reading was so poor she was was considered unlikely to get any GCSE's. At 22 she graduated with a BA hons in Drama, at 23 she was accepted onto the Royal Court Theatre's Young Playwright scheme and at 35 she had her first book​ published.

​       That's right a girl that could hardly
      read(and still to this day cannot
​       read fluently) is a published author.

                 How?
​
        Because she listens to audiobooks. ​

The idea of curling up with a good book may once have brought your child out in a cold sweat... but now it doesn't have to.

You can sit down and enjoy listening to a great story together. Your child can have access to all the wonder and wisdom stories offer, without having to go through the pain of trying to read...

Listening to stories will never fully replace reading, reading is too important, but wouldn't it be nice for story time to be frustration free once in a while?

Then, hopefully, once a love of story is nurtured and blooms, your child will want to push through the struggle of reading - because they'll know it's worth it.

​Happy listening!

Vicky McFarland is a storyteller and writer based in Northern Ireland. Her Tale Time audio stories are enjoyed by children across the world. You can follow her on facebook and twitter, visit the website or join the mailing list to find out about new story collections.

Before my son was born, I used to worry about the state of the world and where it was headed. Now I don't just worry. I panic. One look on the internet and I break out in a cold sweat. How am I supposed to prepare my son to compete in such a fast moving, mind boggling world? How can I protect him from the dangers whilst still giving him the advantages? How can I ensure he makes good choices? Sometimes I consider throwing the computer in the bin and living some kind of archaic tech-free life. But when 65% of jobs for my son's generation still haven't been invented yet. How can I keep him from the one thing he might need to survive? We can't hide from the internet - as much as we might like to. We have to prepare them for it.

But there's something we have to remember. The internet might be faceless and fast moving and all encompassing. But behind every article, behind every website and blog, is a person telling a tale. The way I see it, the internet is just full of people telling their stories. Some are good stories, some are bad, some are real, some are make believe and some are fake. But at it's heart its just storytelling.

So tell your kid stories. Tell them the same stories from different points of view. Remind them there are endless ways to tell every story and everyone has a reason for telling their tale. Even better teach them to be storytellers. Teach them to spot a trickster by the cut of his jib. ​Arm them with the ability to tell their own stories and they will not only be able to see through the smoke and mirrors of the internet, they will be able to use it to their advantage.

Vicky McFarland is a storyteller and writer based in Northern Ireland. Her Tale Time audio stories are enjoyed by children across the world. You can follow her on facebook and twitter, visit the website or join the mailing list to find out about new story collections.

It seems like we have a day for everything now. World Book Day, National Popcorn Day (yes, that's a thing), International Talk Like A Pirate Day (my favourite). With everything teachers and parents have to think about these days, you would be forgiven for not being aware that this week is National Storytelling Week.

So what is this National Storytelling Week?

A whole week dedicated to traditional storytelling - that's people telling other people stories. No fancy apps. No split screens or interactive gaming. Just sitting back and listening to a good old fashioned tale, told well (hopefully).

How lovely is that?

But with today's hectic schedules and busy lives, I worry people do not have the time or patience for such things. 

If I'm honest, when I was a teacher, I would have dreaded another 'special week' in the diary. I would have seen it as a load more work to do, taking away from the important task of getting kids to where they need to be. Something else getting in the way of covering the curriculum.

Although, of course, I am a storyteller and have been for over ten years. I made sure when I had a class that I told them lots of stories - if I couldn't do it every day, I could certainly make the effort for National Storytelling Week (they loved them by the way and started telling their own).

I'm now a mum.

I look at friends and family with older children and see the pressures of modern life: balancing home-life, work-life, school, clubs, hobbies, family-time, social media and ever increasing homework not to mention the saturation of the toy, app, gaming, media markets that bombard us with more and more must haves.

I wonder how anyone has time to breathe?

So, even though I'm a storyteller, even though I spend half my week researching and re-imagining traditional tales for children, I can understand the temptation to let National Storytelling Week pass by with barely a mention.

But this would be a shame and a missed opportunity, in my opinion. Because - and this is where I hope you'll all agree with me - it is precisely because of all those pressures of modern living that traditional storytelling is needed now more than ever.

Let me tell you a little story, that illustrates what I'm getting at.
Recently, I was in my local supermarket when I passed a group of school kids, first or second year students of the nearby Grammar School. I overheard a snippet of conversation between them. Which went pretty much like this.
"Hey, haven't seen you for ages, what's up?"
"Yeah, good. Busy. You?"
"Yeah, so busy."
"See ya then."
It was 3.30pm on a Tuesday afternoon. These kids were no more than 12 years old and already they were too busy to stop and chat. Too busy to share a connection with each other. Too busy to go and play.

When did our kids get too busy to be kids?

I do not know these particular kids. I don't know what they had in their diaries. But I suspect they were no different to all the kids up and down the country under pressure to do well, to get the best grades, to take part in extra curricular, to build their CVs (is that really what kids should be worrying about?!) Of course we want our children to succeed. We want them to achieve everything they can. We want them to live fulfilling lives but most of all don't we want them to be happy?

Where lasting happiness comes from is a subject for a different blog. And I am not going to pretend that listening to a storyteller tell a great story is going to solve all the problems the modern world throws at our children. 

But... it's certainly a step in the right direction.

Listening to a story offers a little bit of breathing space in an otherwise hectic world. A chance to connect with some age old wisdom and step away from the screen for a moment. A chance to fire up imaginations, to get their minds working - a welcome relief from the spoon feeding of TVs and screens. (Not that I'm anti TV or screens - everything has a place).

But this National Storytelling Week I urge you, take some time out, go see a storyteller, invite one into your class, or download a traditional tale, listen online. Better still, tell each other stories - but give yourselves a little break from the busy and allow your kids, your selves, your family, your classes the treat of enjoying a good story, well told.

Vicky McFarland is a storyteller and writer based in Northern Ireland. Her Tale Time audio stories are enjoyed by children across the world. You can follow her on facebook and twitter, visit the website or join the mailing list to find out about new story collections.